This leads him on a wild chase involving fighting bad guys in a burning bar, fighting bad guys on moving trucks, and killer sand ghosts.

And that's not even taking into account what he has to go through in the prologue, which involves the iconic boulder escape scene.

The film itself was a massive hit, but due to the Troubled Productions of Star Wars, and Jaws, studios were reluctant to fund a film by bothGeorge Lucas and Steven Spielberg, despite those respective films also being massive hits. Paramount eventually agreed to fund the film, although the series largely belongs to Lucasfilm. The production, while having some problems (mainly the majority of the crew being ill in Tunisia), it wrapped ahead of time and on-budget (something Spielberg felt was important). Lawrence Kasdan was brought in to write a screenplay based on ideas born during story meetings between Lucas, Spielberg and Kasdan. The screenplay was so good that Lucas asked Kasdan to write the final draft of the first Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.

Appropriated Title: The first movie was released as just Raiders of the Lost Ark, while all other media include Jones' name in the title. Later re-releases did change the title to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Bang Bang BANG: used intentionally to provide "heroic" and "villainous" gunshot motifs. Note that every pistol Indy uses (from the 45 automatic in the bar fight to his trademark revolver) produces the exact same sound, a huge "kaboom" that was actually a recording of a 30/30 rifle.

Bunny Ears Lawyer: A passing mention from one of his students mentions "all that travel" Indy does. Save the world from Nazis on Sunday, midterm on Monday, sure, why not?

Chain Lightning: The Ark is apparently capable of generating an electrical effect that jumps from person to person.

Chekhov's Skill: Subverted/played with. Marion's Establishing Character Moment shows her drinking a large, burly brute under the table. She tries to use her hard-drinking ability to get the cultured and effete Belloq drunk in an attempt to escape from him, but fails; part of his "cultured" background is that his family owns a vineyard, and he has been drinking since he was a preteen.

Did They or Didn't They?: "I was a child; I was in love! It was wrong and you knew it!" Lucas has admitted that originally, he wrote young Indy and Marion's relationship as taking place when Indy was in his twenties and Marion was fourteen.

Dressing as the Enemy: Played with, where the first guard Indy knocks out in the sub pen is too skinny for his shirt to fit. Fortunately, a larger specimen turns up to scold him for being "out of uniform"...

Evil Laugh: Belloq, after sending the Hovitos to kill an escaping Indiana.

Gory Discretion Shot: The camera cuts away as the Giant Mook gets turned into red paste, only showing the splash of blood on a swastika. This is occasionally edited out of broadcast versions, but it's anyone's guess if they're editing out the blood or the swastika itself. Averted at the very end of the film, however.

Hollywood Density: The gold idol at the start of the film, which should weigh far too much to be toted around as easily as it is, let alone weigh about the same as a small bag of sand. When Indy looks at it, he actually removes sand from his bag to approximate its weight. A solid gold object of that size would weigh at least fifty pounds. However, it's never explicitly stated that the idol is indeed solid gold.

Karma Houdini: The evil eyepatch-wearing owner of the monkey vanishes from the film unscathed. The monkey isn't as lucky.

Mayincatec: The trap infested Hovitos underground temple is one of the best-remembered trapped lairs of all time.

Meaningful Name: Major Toht's name is an anglicized spelling of the German word for death.

Memetic Sex God: In-universe. One of the girls in Indy's class goes so far to write "Love You" on her eyelids to flirt with him, when he's in his nerdy tweed ensemble. One can only imagine what they'd if they saw him in the fedora and whip outfit.

Weapon Twirling: The infamous scene where a swordsman shows off and Indy just shoots him.

We Have Reserves: During the Nepal bar brawl, Indy is struggling against one of Toht's burly mooks. Toht, however, tells one of his other mooks to "Shoot them. Shoot them both.". This has the hilarious effect of making both Indy and the big mook stop to shoot the other mook.